Summary: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville, girl!Blaise, Draco, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle serve detention on the last day of school and Binns forgets to dismiss them! They eventually find Colin also locked in school and the 12 of them are utterly bored. Hermione gets a brilliant idea which turns out to be a BIG mistake. But getting stuck in 1977 can't be that bad, right? Hermione/Draco, Ron/girl!Blaise, Harry/Luna, Colin/Ginny, Lily/James
Disclaimer: I don't own this so don't sue me.
Chapter 5: Another Person Thrown Into The Mix
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"So... hungry..." Ron moaned, rubbing his growling stomach. He buried his face in his hands. Ginny, who was sitting next to him on the couch of the common room, let her toes cling to the edge of the couch. She rested her head on her knees and watched Hermione pace the room. Harry suck lower in his chair.
"So go to the kitchens!" Hermione snapped irritably at the redheaded boy. Ron scowled at her.
"What's up with you?"
"What do you mean 'what's up with you'? You know what's up. We're stuck in this bloody school for two months, that's what's up!"
Ron crossed his arms. "Well, you don't have to take it out on me!"
"Will you two please stop arguing?" Ginny asked them in a small voice. The two friends sighed and Hermione went back to pacing without another word. Ron grabbed Harry and Ginny by the wrists and pulled them out of the portrait hole.
"We're going to the kitchens," he grumbled.
"How do you know if there's food?" Ginny asked as the three of them walked down the corridor.
"Maybe there won't be," Harry shrugged. "But at least walking down there'll give us something to do instead of pacing the common room like Hermione..." He let out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair.
They continued walking in silence with the occasional "I'm hungry" from Ron. They entered the kitchens and were surprised to find all of the house elves that worked in the school taking happily amongst themselves. One of them turned around and gasped. He rushed over to Harry and pulled him into a tight hug. "What is Harry Potter doing here? It is the summer time... Harry Potter should be going home!"
Harry sighed. "We kind of got stuck in here, Dobby."
"Dobby says hello to Harry Potter's friends too!" Dobby said merrily. Harry smiled.
"Erm, Dobby, do you know a way to get out of the school?"
Dobby frowned and shook his head. "There is no way... Professor Dumbledore puts a spell on it all summer... only he can de-activate it..."
"What does the spell do?"
"It forbids anyone from coming onto the Hogwarts grounds and forbids anyone from leaving them... that is why us house elves are here... we live here all year." Dobby nodded at they other house elves.
"I ga um ood," Ron said from behind Harry with a piece of cake in his mouth. He had levitated a basket and there were many sweets and drinks in it.
"What?" Ginny asked with disgust. Ron swallowed.
"I said 'I got some food,'" Ron explained. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"All right, Dobby, we're going to leave now," Harry said, turning back to the house elf. "Thanks for your help."
"Dobby is very welcome! Harry Potter must come back to visit while he is at Hogwarts!"
"I will," Harry assured him.
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"So they're prisoners!" Hermione yelled after Harry explained about the spell. "The house elves are trapped here all year, they are prisoners!"
"Hermione, that's not the point!" Harry sighed exasperatedly. He plopped down on the couch and Ron shook his head. "The point is we're stuck here until someone figures out what's happened to us and tells Dumbledore!"
Hermione groaned and fell onto the couch beside her best friend. "I wonder how long it'll take."
"I have an idea!" Ron yelled suddenly. "We could tell one of the portraits in Dumbledore's office, you know, tell them we're stuck here-"
"And how do you propose we get into Dumbledore's office?" Hermione asked. "We don't know the password."
Ron looked at the ground and scratched the back of his head. "Oh yeah..."
"Where's Luna anyway?" Ginny asked. Harry shrugged as he played with the hem of his oxford shirt.
"We lost her on the search. What about Neville?"
Ginny stared at the fireplace as though she was thinking and then shook her head. "No idea... I'm gonna go find them."
"I'll come too," Hermione sighed.
So they left the boys to their food and Butterbeers and headed out of the common room. They walked slowly, not keen on running out of energy too fast. They eventually found someone in the library, but it wasn't who they were looking for.
"Hmm. Granger and the female Weasley. What are you doing here without your boyfriends to stand up for you?" Malfoy drawled in a voice that was less threatening than usual. He was sitting alone at table. His head was resting on one of his hands while the other arm was lying next to it. He looked utterly bored.
Hermione crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. "We can stand up for ourselves, thank you very much."
"And anyway, Malfoy," Ginny chimed in, "we should be asking the same."
Malfoy's chair slid back as he stood up. He walked around the desk so he was standing in front of the two Gryffindor girls. He leaned against the table and loosely copied Hermione's position; he crossed his arms and tapped his foot also. "First of all, Crabbe and Goyle are not my boyfriends," he replied coolly. "And second of all, I can stand up for myself as well. Not to mention, I find those two rather annoying," he added as an afterthought.
"Well, that's not good," Hermione stated. "Because those are the only people that can stand being around you. You'd better get used to them."
"Shut it, Granger."
The two enemies glared at each other, Ginny stood and watched in an awkward manner. She continually shifted her weight and scratched her weedy calf with her shoe. "Uh, I'm going to go find Luna and Neville," she said in an unsure tone. She didn't wait for Hermione's response; she just walked away quickly. It took a little while for Hermione to notice that there wasn't anyone on her immediate left anymore.
"You'd better get going," Mafloy said when he realized this too. "You wouldn't want to keep poor Longbottom waiting. After all, he might need you help walking, the clumsy oaf."
"Neville might be clumsy, but he's nicer than you," Hermione shot back. She placed her hands on her hips.
"Ooh, that really hit home, Granger," Malfoy said sarcastically as he patted his chest and sighed. "That really hurt."
Hermione groaned and stalked away before her anger spilled out in a messy manner. Punching Malfoy would take all the energy she didn't have.
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"Uhg, where are they?" Ginny asked in an annoyed tone. She and Hermione had been searching for an hour; it was already getting dark out. Suddenly, they heard voices around the corner. As they walked down the corridor, they could make out what the people were saying.
"...trapped in a closet, I swear..." they heard Neville voice. The girls glanced at each other and continued walking to the corner. "At least we know Neville's all right," Ginny whispered. They stopped walking so that Ginny could fix her knee sock, but they continued to listen to the voices.
"Yeah, it was some 7th year Slytherins," another voice said. It was definitely a male. Ginny glanced up at Hermione and read her mind. The voice was very familiar. It couldn't be Harry... he was in the common room along with Ron. It wasn't Malfoy... he wouldn't be talking to Neville like that. And it certainly wasn't Crabbe or Goyle... Ginny didn't know if they could even speak proper words.
"Was it Malfoy and his gang?" Neville asked this anonymous boy. Ginny stood up and brushed herself off before she and Hermione continued down the hallway.
"Surprisingly not," they boy said. "They were in detention, right?"
"Wait, when did they stuff you in the closet?" Luna's voice said seriously. The boy cleared his throat.
"Um... about an hour before everyone was leaving. I was going to the dormitory to finish with my packing and they just came out of nowhere and threw me into the closet. I even have a small bruise to prove it!"
"Oh no! Where?" Luna asked. The Gryffindor girls heard the footsteps stop and someone sigh.
"Whoever checks to see if anyone is still in the building does a sucky job if they couldn't find you," Neville commented.
"Well, it's Filch, so what do you expect," the boy laughed. Just as Ginny realized who it was, Neville, Luna, and the boy had turned a corner and banged into Ginny and Hermione.
Ginny sat up on the floor she had just fallen on. "Colin!" she gasped as she looked up at the mysterious boy.
Colin Creevey smiled down at the redheaded girl and stuck out a hand for her to grab. "Hi-ya, Ginny!"
"Oh, I'm so glad you're here!" she squealed as she pulled him into a tight hug. Hermione observed this. Colin was around the same height as Ginny and Hermione, making him about 5 feet, 6 inches. He had light brown hair that was messy in a neat way (A/N: Was that confusing?) and a nose that was rounded at the tip. She watched a blush spread across his face as Ginny hugged him and how his brown eyes sparkled with felicity. Ron would be thrilled if he saw this interaction, she thought sarcastically.
"Glad to see you too, Gin," Colin said as he patted her back. She let go and smiled at him. "Too bad we're stuck at school. Can you believe that we're doing a yearbook next year?"
----- That was awfully random on him. Review time! Thanks to the people who reviewed the other chapters. Wow, 5 chapters in and we're still not at the main part of the story.
[revised 5/23/04]